The Great American Conspiracy, Part One

I don't know what you think but I really feel that people in this country are getting stupider by the boat load. Now the average intelligence quotient in our country has not really slipped that far in the last few decades, or so the powers that be would like you to think. Census will tell you that the average IQ in America is 80 to 100 and has been in that same range, pretty much since the testing had been implemented but look around you. Do you really feel that that is an accurate assessment? first off, we live in an age of technology with information right at our fingertips, fingertips, I might add, that we barely even have to raise to get anything done. Take cell phone technology for instance. I have always had a keen ability to remember phone numbers, than, one day I was introduced to the cell phone. I put every number that I would ever need to call into the cell phone so I would no longer have to hold said numbers in my head. So what should happen? About a year later, in a drunken anti-technology, why won't my ex stop calling me moment, I took the whole mess and chucked it into the writhing waters of our own Pacific ocean. This had two effects, 1) I instantly lost every number I had for every person I knew, including the hot girl I had just met, who had amazing breasts, killer legs and not a lot of noticeable inhibitions and 2) it made me realize just how much I relied on an exterior source of memory. After the cell phone fiasco, I actually found it extremely difficult to memorize phone numbers. In that way technology made me less intelligent. How about the computer? I love it, it is an amazing way to collect information, or connect with people. With out the computer you wouldn't be able to read what I am writing, so I am glad for it. The huge downside to the computer is this, information gathering is almost too easy. If I wanted to know about the life and times of, let's say Charlemagne, well I would, at one time, have had to go to the library and look up all kinds of books and references on the Frankish empire, needless to say I would learn several other things in my research, this would make me more intelligent. Now all I have to do is type Charlemagne into Google and, Bam, there I have a list of every reference I would need. This, by the shear fact that we no longer need our reasoning and research skills to find information, dumbs us down even further. How about advertising? Has anyone else noticed that our urban areas are slowly emulating that of 1980's sci-fi urban areas. Go sit and watch RoboCop, Blade Runner, Starship Troopers( I know it is from the 90's but it counts). In these movies, advertisements are everywhere, people stare vacantly into television sets on the side of the street that tell you how much better your life can be if you buy this or that. Watch the films, then, walk around with a friend and see how many terrifying omens of a stupid world you can find for yourselves. You may ask, Joe, what is wrong with all this mass advertising? Well, it's simple, it overloads your brain, the repetition, the constant eye straining lights and ear piercing sounds, after a while anyone would burn out and go fashion zombie. Now, of course we can't forget the school system. I was lucky to be in a comparably good school system as a child and I still felt that we were working at the level of the dumbest kid in the class. Now schools are poorly funded, the teachers can barely survive in todays market on the smidgen of money the are given each year. School closings are not rare, the government claims they cannot afford to keep them open, yet they pour billions of dollars into warfare and weaponry. My personal guess is that in the next decade or so private schools will begin popping up all over the country. These schools will be much the same as those cheesy art and food colleges you see on television all the time. Your parents will have to pay your tuition for elementary school, meanwhile, paying the same, if not more taxes and if they don't, you don't get an education. Who would this benefit? Why the military industrial complex of course. The poorly educated make good workers and more malleable soldiers. They don't know how bad they have it because they have never had it good. Do I have any proof of this conspiracy? You ask. Well, no I don't but walk through any mall or shopping center or down any crowded city street, open your eyes and ears and really check out the situation, then tell me if you need much more proof. My god, I have heard a monkeys butt say more intelligent things after a two hour under ripe plantain binge.